


No Trouble

by Winterling42



Category: UnDeadwood (Web Series)
Genre: Drinking, F/F, Invitations, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22766845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterling42/pseuds/Winterling42
Summary: Arabella presents Miriam with a sensible business decision.
Relationships: Miriam Landisman/Arabella Whitlock
Kudos: 8





	No Trouble

The conversation went something like this: "It seems silly to have you be the only one paying for a room all the time," Arabella said, pretending not to care. She and Miriam were drinking at the Bella Union, Arabella having come into town to volunteer with the church construction and Miriam having just finished a very intriguing business deal in a room upstairs. "I mean, of all of us you're the one not tied here 'cept by choice. Your business could take you anywhere, and honestly you'd probably do better in a place bigger than Deadwood." 

"Now what do you know about my business?" Miriam asked, but she was only teasing. She and Arabella had grown close over the past few months, closer even than their initial bond during the Events, now months in the past. 

Arabella smiled back her sharp, clever smile and sipped at her whiskey. "I'm just saying. It's money you don't need to be spending, staying at the Bullock." 

"And where would you suggest I go?" Miriam asked, though she had an idea where this was heading. "I'll never set foot in the Gem again, and the Bella Union ain't offering long-term residence." 

"You could come live with me!" Arabella set her drink down a little too hard, slopping liquor over the rim. She shook it off, though her blush was much harder to shake. She cleared her throat as Miriam grinned and went on, "Mr. Whitlock and I are rattling around in that big house, and surely wouldn't mind the company." 

"And your husband is alright with the prospect of a permanent kind of guest?" 

Arabella's expression could not charitably be called a frown, but it was certainly interesting--like the face one makes just after biting into an unexpectedly tart lemon. "I'm sure I could convince him otherwise. It might just take a bit of...handling." 

The two of them sighed at the same moment. Miriam reached over the bar to grab a bottle and pour Arabella some more to drink. It was one thing to be married to a man you didn't like--quite another to be confronted daily with someone you _did_. And while Miriam had loved her husband, she truly had, she was certainly glad he wasn't here in Deadwood now. For one thing, she was fairly certain he would have fled (and forced her to flee with him) the first moment that business with the un-dead had started up. For another, she had never been good at keeping her heart to herself, and it might have broken his to see her give it away so easily. 

Arabella smiled again, a flash of feeling as quick as the lizards Miriam sometimes saw scurrying under the decks and porches of Deadwood. "So what d'you say?"

Miriam took a deep breath, swirling her own glass slowly across the bar. "I don't know...It seems like an awful imposition, and I wouldn't want to put you to any harm dear, truly--" 

Arabella was the one to reach out and put a hand on Miriam's arm, gloved hands as always impeccably clean. "Miriam, truly," she said fervently, "it would be no trouble, and in fact a pleasure to have you stay." At times like these Arabella's Georgian accent always came on a little stronger, when she was playing the host or the lady. Wasn't much cause for it here in Deadwood, but Miriam liked to think of the picture she'd make in a proper city, all fine dresses and clever smiles. 

She put a hand over Arabella's, patting it gently. "Then of course I would love to," she said, and to seal the deal she downed the rest of her whiskey.


End file.
